THE BRITISH OCCUPATION OF MESOPOTAMIA AND THE BEGINNING OF MODERN IRAQ

[MARSHALL, William (Lieutenant General Sir, 1865-1939).] Proclamation by the G.O.C.-in-Chief in Mesopotamia to the people of 'Iraq, on the occasion of the successful conclusion of hostilities against the Turkish Armies. Baghdad: 2 November 1918.

Very rare British proclamations in English and Arabic regarding British rule after the fall of the Ottoman Empire in Mesopotamia.

2 proclamation handbills, one in English (370 x 218 mm.), British royal coat-of-arms top-centre (light horizontal and vertical creasefolds with some minor dogearing to corners); the other in Arabic (380 x 252 mm.), a translation of the previous (two punch holes near third line from bottom, one just touching one letter, light horizontal and vertical creasefolds, some minor dogearing to corners and light staining).

SCARCE HANDBILLS OUTLINING BRITISH INTENTIONS IN IRAQ. Marshall arrived with III (Indian) Corps in the Mesopotamia theatre in 1917, and participated in the capture of Kut-al-Amara in February that year, and was involved in the capture of Baghdad the following month. Promoted General Officer Commanding-in-Chief (G.O.C.-i-C) of Mesopotamia after the death of General Maude in 1917, Marshall moved cautiously northwards, and accepted the surrender of the Ottoman army at Mosul on 30 October 1918, with the signing of the Armistice of Mudros.

The present lot dates from this time, reiterating that the British Army had come 'not as conquerors but as deliverers', and gives an overall picture of the progress of the war. Fascinatingly, Marshall states '[we' are in a position to control the destinies of Mosul'; he was yet to move against that city, and in fact only received orders to do so on 2 November, the date of the publication of these handbills. Marshall's decision to seize Ottoman territory around Mosul after the ceasefire is controversial, and the Official History makes no mention of it, but Dr Rod Thornton has suggested Marshall needed to seize the city and the whole of the vilayet (surrounding administrative area) in order to secure the food supply for the country and stabilize a population struggling with a refugee crisis: but Dr Rod Thornton has suggested Marshall needed to seize the city and the whole of the vilayet (surrounding administrative area) in order to secure the food supply for the country and stabilize a population struggling with a refugee crisis (’Erdogan and the National Pact: The Fallout Today from the British Army’s Seizing of Mosul’, Defence in Depth).

The eighth undertaking announced here states that 'a distribution of food and clothing will be made to the poor of Baghdad and other towns' which indicates food supplies were uppermost in Marshall's mind.

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